This invention relates to the field of electronics and in particular to the assembly of electronic components to printed wiring boards. The invention is particularly designed to be incorporated within electronic component lead-forming machinery: a typical such device is the Mark V Component Lead Former, mnufactured by Technical Devices Co., Culver City, Calif.
In the manufacture of small to moderate-sized electronic equipment such as electronic tuners, amplifiers and receivers, it is common to use a series of elements, such as electronic capacitors, whose general configuration takes the form of a generally cylindrical main body portion having rigid but bendable metallic leads aligned on the axis of the cylinder and projecting outboard from each end along such axis. Such elements are commonly referred to as axial leaded components. These leads must commonly be bent in a precise, predetermined fashion by a forming tool so they may readily be positioned and connected in the desired location in the printed wiring board.
Several manufacturers of machine tools make and sell such component-forming tools; a typical example of such a tool is the aforesaid Mark V Component Lead Former. While forming tools of this general character perform acceptably when the various chutes, baffles and component-holding elements are properly positioned, a common disadvantage is the extended set-up time needed for manual positioning of each of the walls of the orienting feed chute. This is generally accomplished by trial and error with the use of wrenches, pliers and other common hand tools. While such lengthy set-up time, frequently a matter of hours, can be justified for an extended production run of thousands of electronic components, such set-up time becomes excessive for job-shop forming operations involving runs of as few as 10 to 20 components of a given desired configuration. In addition to lengthy set up time, the trial-and-error set up technique results in inaccurate, non-repeatable results and often leads to a scrap rate of as much as 60 percent (based on a lot size of five components).
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism for precise positioning of feed mechanisms with respect to the forming elements of the component-forming devices.
A further object is to provide a mechanism for reducing set-up time for component-forming devices from several hours to less than a minute or two, with additional improvement in the precision of positioning the walls and other parts of the feed system.
A still further object is to provide means for adjusting the walls of a feed chute assembly of such devices, while the assembly is in an operating position, thus permitting ready testing of the accuracy of such positioning.
Other objects of the invention will in part be apparent from the description herein and will in part appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the product possessing the features, properties and the relation of components and the process involving the several steps and the relation and order of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others which are exemplified in the following detailed disclosure, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the claims.